Among Angels

I like to think of myself as friendly and open to meeting new people. My friends like to think of me as a "freak magnet." I do not say that with any disrespect if you are the one whom I have met at some point in my life when our paths have crossed, it just always seems as if I find myself in situations that normal people usually don't encounter. Like the time when I was waiting for the rest of my family to come out of a restaurant and I saw a man fall off of his bike in the middle of the street right in fron of me! The traffic just kept moving and not one vehicle stopped to help and the man just kept lying there in the middle of the street! I turned to my son and told him to wait right there and I ran out to help him out of the road-eventually someone with a truck did stop and put his bike in the back and took him home. Or maybe the time I took my kids to an event called Punkin Chuckin and there were literally hundreds of people there, but I noticed that this tiny Asian women seemed to be feeling ill-her own husband was busy watching the festivities and didn't even notice his own wife until I tapped him on the shoulder. The woman grabbed her stomach and fell down on her knees while other people just walked around her oblivious to the fact that something was wrong with her. I approached her and then offered her a napkin to wipe her face. This woman was pregnant and had experienced a wave of sickness and thankfully turned out to be just fine. I could probably think of several more incidents where I was in the "right place at the right time." For me, I do not look at those times as freak occurances, I look at them as God moments. They are God moments because you never know the people you are helping or you may never know their circumstances in their lives, but you can offer a helping hand and show them God's love, even if it is for a brief moment. One of my favorite verses is found in Hebrews 13:2, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." I believe that people are brought into our lives for a reason, God's reason. We may not understand it or want to accept certain people into our lives, but there is a reason for their presence. One time in Chicago I walked out of a store with my mom and my two kids and there was an old woman in a wheelchair with a sign that read,"Help Me." Now, if you have walked the streets of Chicago, you know that there are many homeless and desperate people asking for money, but for some reason I felt like I should give this particular woman some money. I took some money out of my billfold and placed it into her container with my children and mom looking at me as if I had lost my mind! The woman looked at me and said, "God bless you." My mom could not believe I had done that-she was convinced that this woman would be up walking as soon as we turned the corner and could no longer see her! I just shrugged my shoulders and told her either way I felt as if I had made the right choice, and my kids have never forgotten that even 4 years later. I can't say for sure if I have ever seen an angel, but I know that they exist. Maybe they exist in that man who fell off of his bike or maybe the woman in the wheelchair. Wherever they are, I know that they are among us and I for one will not let the opportunity to help someone out pass me by. You never know when I may need their help in return.
Blessings-Nicole